From Eroica With Love #17

Trojan Horse

Summary by Mme Cusack

London. Volovolonte called Eroica about a two thousand year old
necklace found in Tunis; it was said to have belonged to the
Carthaginian Queen Dido. Wanting to see the Earl, Volovolonte invited
Eroica, Bonham and James on a Mediterranean cruise to North Africa on
his boat. After some argument with James, they took their route to Rome
to meet Volovolonte.

Bonn. A French intelligence agent (Beaumont) came to Klaus and informed
him that apparently there had been a nasty, secret operation going on in
the General Directorate for External Security (Direction Generale de la
Securite Exterieure -- DGSE) to damage the prestige of NATO and
Germany. The leader of the conspiracy was Jean Francois de Brignac, the
vice director of the Operations Directorate and a French supremacist who
loathed both NATO and Germany. Klaus's friend Beaumont was a
Germanophile in the organization, therefore he was estranged by Brignac
and deprived of chances of promotion. According to Beaumont, the secret
operation to trap both NATO and Germany was called "Trojan Horse", the
details of which was unknown save that it had been interrupted a year
ago and lately came back to life again; suddenly the department purged
its employees sympathetic to Germany and NATO. The Chief endorsed
Beaumont's speculation, because Brignac was renowned for being supported
by the politicians advocating France as the leader of the EU. Klaus was
going to start the research on the operation "Trojan Horse", but the
Chief had a better idea. He dispatched Klaus to a joint maneuver of the
NATO fleet in the Mediterranean sea as a contact officer from the
Intelligence Office. Klaus would have a chance to see Brignac in person
at the welcoming party at Nice, France.

Off the coast of Tunis. Volovolonte was dreamily watching Dorian
swimming in the morning sea before breakfast (Volovolonte to his girl, asking for
diamonds as ever: "A devastatingly beautiful man. Isn't he like the
sun-god Apollo?") So-called Dido's necklace was held as a gift for
Dorian at a small shop in Medina. Business prevented him from going to
Medina with Dorian, and affectionate Gian Maria was a little concerned
about Dorian's safety in the African city. He ordered his men (Mafiosi)
to follow and protect Eroica unnoticed. Volovolonte picked a (pink?)
rose and put it on Eroica's jacket. He said it was a charm to prevent
him from being lost in the city. Eroica looked at the Mafia boss with a
fixed gaze and said, "I feel your love, signore." [Dorian's facial
expression in this panel is quite something. It's one of the few in the
episode that matches to those in the author's peak era.]

Eroica, Bonham and James enjoyed sightseeing at the ruins of Carthage.
A bald Arab sneaked up behind Eroica and whispered to him: "The Trojan
Horse departed. It will arrive at the destination in one week via Marseilles,
Paris and Antwerp. Say hi to the vice directeur." (Two other Arabs were
watching this scene with binoculars.)

Immediately after, there hurriedly appeared another three men (to the
readers, they are obviously the DGSE): a short one with curly blond hair
who wore a rose on his jacket, one tall guy with black hair wearing
grayish suits like James', and another with a mustache and casual outfit
just like Bonham. Both trios looked at each other and acknowledged at
once that the message was given to Eroica by mistake. Dorian was
offended by being mistaken for "the French lowlifes." (In this episode,
Dorian's dislike of French is occasionally emphasized.) The blond
yelled at Dorian to forget what the bald Arab had said, and Dorian
retorted he had no ear to listen to a petty underling of a cheap
organization. After they parted from each other, the French mustache
said they might have to kill them, which was eavesdropped by the Mafia,
and the Mafioso threatened the trio with a shotgun. The trio made a
wrong conjecture that the secret message was sent to the Mafia and
panicked.

Dorian obtained the dubious, but beautiful antique necklace at Casim's
Shop. In the shop, Bonham saw two suspicious-looking Arabs (readers
know they are the ones who had been watching the bald Arab delivering
the message to Eroica) keeping an eye on the shop. As they could be
thieves after foreigners, Casim suggested that they escape through the
backdoor. But somehow they were found, and the Arabs started to run
after them with a larger group. All of a sudden the Mafia appeared and
chased them away by opening fire. The Arabs fled. The Mafia escorted
them to a safe place. Dorian was profoundly impressed by Volovolonte's
heavy, deep love for him (after James' expression).

On the way back to the cruiser, Dorian started to feel uneasy because
everyone appeared to be members of the group who attempted to assault
them.

Port of Tunis. One of the Arabs went underwater to do something on
Volovolonte's cruiser. Their conversation led us to know that they
belonged to a certain group, and the bald man (Ahmed) who had approached
Eroica was a French spy whom they had suspected and kept an eye on.
With Ahmed's role unmasked, they mistook Dorian for a French agent.
They were going to kill Eroica and the two.

A little while after the cruiser departed the port of Tunis, there was
an explosion on the cruiser; luckily nobody was hurt, but the boat
started to sink. Volovolonte sent out a Mayday. Guess who responded to
the signal at once? The NATO fleet which happened to be passing
nearby.

The Mafia discarded all their firearms and they agreed to pretend to be
a good millionaire and his friends. They never dreamt that Iron
Klaus was among the fleet crew members.

On board, Klaus volunteered to investigate the rescued people, insisting
that they could be spies pretending to be shipwreck victims. The
Captain and the crew members frowned at his remark: "When you see a man,
assume he's a thief," (a Japanese way of saying "don't trust a
stranger"). The moment the boisterous group saw the Major, the air on
deck was frozen. The Captain asked Klaus if they were thieves. Klaus
and Dorian stared at each other. Klaus utterly ignored them to avoid
the nuisance of dealing with the police. He ordered A to never approach
Bonham and consider them as a mirage. Volovolonte said he was going
back to Rome as soon as they arrived at Nice; he would get ready to
dispose of the Corsican Mafia boss who had openly mocked at him in
receiving their SOS. It was a great opportunity for Volovolonte to
expand his territory.

Nice, France. Brignac of the DGSE was there on the mission to welcome
the fleet ships. He accused his three agents for failing to get the
message and having neglected to identify the three British. Brignac
also became wary to see the name of Iron Klaus among the NATO fleet crew
members; he told the trio to go watch Iron Klaus at the port. At the
port, the trio witnessed Eroica saying good-bye to Volovolonte, and drew
another wrongful conclusion that Eroica was a pawn of NATO Intelligence,
that he had already contacted Iron Klaus on the ship. Brignac ordered
them to capture Eroica and the two, but they fled easily -- except that
Bonham left the bag which contained the Carthaginian necklace at the
captured room.

Eroica took to the hotel where Klaus stayed, which was the place where
the welcoming reception of the NATO fleet by French authorities took
place. Brignac was there, and he recognized Dorian's face from the
picture the trio had taken. Seeing Eroica dashing to the party hall,
Brignac asked him, "You came to see Iron Klaus?" Eroica gathered the
man with the big nose (Brignac) was the boss of the trio, therefore the
one from some kind of French intelligence agency, particularly if he
knew the name of Iron Klaus. Eroica fled, looking for the gray uniform
of the NATO army major.

Brignac spotted Klaus in the smoking room. Covering his nose with a
handkerchief, Brignac took Klaus by surprise by ordering him to turn in
the young Brit (Eroica), without even giving his name. Looking up at
the man, Klaus coolly remonstrated that Brignac's attitude was rather
impolite at their first meeting. Klaus feigned innocent -- at least he
didn't know Eroica's involvement in the case at the moment -- to
Brignac's accusation that the "barbaric Germans" had used "declining
Brits" to trespass the French territory. Klaus let him go on ranting:
Brignac told him to withdraw from the problem of terrorism in North
Africa. "France has a long history and experience in coping with the
problems in Northern Africa. It is presumptuous of damn Germans to
meddle in our efforts to stop the terrorism of the Islamic Fundamentalist
Supremacists." At last, Klaus bluffed:

Klaus:

Monsieur Brignac, we will stop your "Trojan Horse".

Brignac:

...No, that's impossible, Major. Don't know what the Brit told you,
but the Germans won't be able to stop the "Trojan Horse." Not
any more. Too bad, but your mission will fail.

Brignac left, and Klaus knew the "Trojan Horse" had something to do
with the group of Islamic Extreme terrorists.

After Brignac was gone, Eroica stepped out from behind the drapery; he
had been eavesdropping the exchange between the two. Klaus was enraged,
but caught by curiosity when Eroica uttered the first part of the
message the bald Arab had left him: "the Trojan Horse departed...."
Dorian promised that he would tell what had happened in North Africa
provided Klaus treated them a nice dinner at an elegant ocean-front
restaurant. Klaus said he would.

In the meantime, Brignac and the trio met at the hotel lobby. The trio
brought the bag Bonham left to show it to Brignac; he found the antique
necklace interesting and precious, and took it for himself. Brignac
thought Eroica didn't quite meet the standard of a professional spy: the
relationship with the Mafia, expensive belongings, an eye-catching
appearance and imprudent actions, all of those indicated he was
something different. He told the trio to look into the identity of the
Brit. Their entire conversation was being heard by agent A taking a
seat on a nearby sofa. Agent A went to report the Major and Eroica
hiding in the men's room that the necklace was confiscated by Brignac.
Infuriated, Eroica was determined to retrieve the necklace.

Klaus took Eroica, Bonham, James and A to a self-serve restaurant to
buy them dinner. From the Earl's story, Klaus learned that the "Trojan
Horse" (the Islamic terrorists group) would enter Germany within a
week. Dorian recognized his dangerous position of being chased by the
terrorists. The Major warned Eroica to go back to London ASAP if he'd
like to live long, while giving him the name of the hotel where Brignac
was staying as an additional bonus for his information.

After the civilians (Eroica et al.) left, Klaus told A that the target
of the terrorists was likely to be the US Secretary General who had
been visiting the NATO nations and was coming to Germany to see the US
Air Force base in a week. Klaus figured that the French intelligence
agency deliberately hid the information so as to let the terrorists
assassinate the US Secretary General, rendering the loss of prestige of
both NATO and Germany. Klaus was going to search Antwerp on Eroica's
information where there were many arms brokers.

That night, Eroica sneaked into Brignac's hotel room, retrieved the
necklace (wrapped and attached with the card saying "To Francoise; don't
tell my wife") and stole his laptop computer along with it.

Next morning, the trio came to Brignac's room with the report on Eroica:
the most wanted international art thief. Brignac realized the necklace
might have been a stolen item. He went to check his belongings and
found not only the necklace but his laptop computer was missing as well;
every detail of the operation "Trojan Horse" had been stored in the
computer. In panic, he ordered the trio to get Eroica.

Brussels, Belgium. A & B left for Antwerp. Klaus had a small meeting with
the Chief who bothered to come see him to apologize because he had
broken Klaus's computer at the office. Klaus explained to the Chief
his hypothesis on Brignac's conspiracy, which was later proven to be true. A couple of
years ago, the DGSE sent a French Arab spy into the extremists'
organization to assassinate their leader -- the first phase of the
Operation Trojan Horse. However, the operation was frustrated for some
reason, most likely the double-crossing of the DGSE agent. Desperate to
recover his own face, Brignac mapped out the second phase of the Trojan
Horse: he would maneuver the "Trojan Horse", who had betrayed France,
into assassinating the US Secretary General, which would permanently
disgrace NATO and Germany. He used the DGSE agent (the bald Arab) for
regular reports on the terrorists' movement, and as a messenger of the
information to instigate the terrorists into the assassination. (If the
Secretary General was killed in Germany, Americans would revise their
involvement on NATO, the US would withdraw from Europe, both England and
Germany's prestige being lost, and NATO would become powerless. Then
France would take over the leadership of the EU. The terrorists would
be attacked and killed by the police or armed forces anyway.) After an
interesting exchange about Klaus's computer that the Chief had messed
with, Klaus departed to Antwerp.

Nice Airport. Eroica, Bonham and James realized that they were followed
by both the Arabs and the French trio. The Arabs made the DGSE trio
nervous, because it would be the end for the organization if Brignac's
computer fell into the terrorists' hands and the secret file was decoded
by them. While two parties kept each other in check, Eroica, Bonham and
James disguised themselves and proceeded to the gate. In compliance
with James' request to get him a computer easier to use, Eroica stole a
Macintosh laptop from a Japanese tourist (a young man with his
girlfriend) at the waiting room of the gate. Now they had two laptops:
Brignac's PC and the easy Mac from the Japanese. Arabs and the trio
were chasing each other when their plane took off to Paris. In the
plane, Eroica made up his mind to go to Antwerp to deliver to Klaus the PC
that might contain the top secret. James, who regarded the Major as his
natural enemy, strongly opposed to the idea.

Charles de Gaulle airport. Agent D & E happened to be in the airport to
take a flight to Antwerp when Eroica and the two arrived. The moment
James set an eye on the alphabets, he snatched Brignac's PC from Bonham
and dashed. The betrayer yelled that the top secret of the French
intelligence agency, the information the Major coveted, was in the PC,
ordered them to deliver it to the Major and forced the PC on them.
Though disbelieving and confused, D & E took the computer and fled
anyway. Eroica was furious and James was exhilarated. Then Bonham
pointed out that James took the wrong laptop from his backpack: the
computer he had thrown to the alphabets was the Mac of the Japanese
tourist. Eroica scoffed at the devastated James. They were headed for
Antwerp.

Antwerp. Klaus lured out Mehrens, an arms broker who secretly worked
for French Intelligence by procuring weapons and arms to mercenaries and
coup d'etats backed by France. The Major threateningly warned him how
dangerous his role could be in this scenario. Mehrens confessed that
he, blackmailed by Brignac, had sold the Arabs a variety of German
weapons which had been actually brought in by the French -- they would
make a bad guy out of Germany to the hilt. The name "Rubens" that
Mehrens had let out inadvertently on the phone was that of Brignac's
contact. The antique shop proprietor was the next one the Major was
going to investigate.

One of the weapons Mehrens sold to the Arabs was a handheld anti-air
missile. Klaus deduced from the Secretary General's itinerary the
possibility that the Arabs might have planned to shoot down his
helicopter near the US Air Force base in Schpangdahrem. When he was
discussing with Agent A which areas to look to, D & E arrived at Antwerp
and contacted the Major about the Mac James forced on to them. Agent E
only found Japanese games in the computer, but he said that, considering
the serious argument between Eroica and James at the airport, the
computer was not completely free from the suspicion that it might really
contain the French agency's top secret. The Major rushed to check the
Mac.

Brignac called Rubens on the phone and ordered him to seek and get
Eroica and faxed him their pictures. Brignac also sent the incompetent
trio to Antwerp with the threat that this would be their last chance to
remain in the office. By a coincidence as usual, Rubens caught
sight of Eroica and the two looking into the window of his antique
store. Rubens invited them in with the promise of 80% off discount
price. Then he lured them into a small room upstairs filled with
relatively expensive items and locked the door from outside. Rubens
told Eroica that he was ordered by the French to capture the art
thieves. Taking Rubens' treatment as an insult to look down on him as
no more than a thief, Eroica encouraged James to steal as much as he
liked before attempting an easy escape. Agent A & B happened to witness
the three went inside the informant's store.

In a cafe, Klaus, D, and E were checking the Mac James sent to the
Major. At a glance, all they could see was an apparently kids' game in
Japanese (a schoolgirl salutes to the player, "Welcome to Mayumi's
room!"). Klaus kept on trying it in the hope of finding a secret
information. Instead, he found out the outrageous nature of the game.
If you keep on clicking the correct button, the girl would be undressed
one layer after another until she would become all nude. Right before
Klaus hit the last button, the battery died. Klaus got furious at D & E
for bringing him the stupid item in the middle of emergency, and at
Eroica who apparently tried to harass him with the game. In the
meantime A & B in front of Rubens' store R/T'ed the Major to tell him that
Eroica was inside. Klaus marched to the antique shop, determined to
slap Eroica's face with the computer and turn them to the police.

Klaus and A & B stormed into the store/residence of Rubens, who recognized
Iron Klaus at once and panicked. Klaus's objective was rather catch
Eroica and strangle his neck. First, Eroica rejoiced to hear the Major's
voice, but then realized he was seriously angry, and started to run
away. Klaus grabbed the hem of Dorian's cashmere overcoat while he was
climbing a ladder; Dorian left the coat in the hands of Klaus, who fell
off the ladder on top of Mr. A; Eroica escaped from the roof by a hair's
breadth. He learned from D & E what in the Mac had infuriated the Major.
The Major interrogated Rubens about the Trojan Horse. Rubens said five
Arabs were hiding in the German forest; the French agent whose code name
is "Q" should be secretly watching the Arabs until the operation is
carried out. All Rubens knew was that Q was the Brignac's favorite
agent and his secret weapon. In sarcastic gratitude for the
information, Klaus handed the Mac laptop to Rubens and suggested he send
it to Brignac "because it belonged to him." Brignac bought it.

Eroica and Bonham checked Brignac's PC at a hotel room in Antwerp.
Bonham spotted the secret file of the French Intelligence Agency, which
could not be decoded without the password. Bonham made a copy of the
file on a floppy.

The French trio sent by Brignac arrived at Rubens' store. Rubens was
angry because Eroica had taken some valuable items from him and
vandalized the store in escaping. To Rubens, Brignac was to blame, as
his order to capture Eroica was the origin of all the mess. The trio
took the Mac from Rubens who lied to them that he had retrieved the
computer from Eroica; he also lied that he had no information on Iron
Klaus. After the trio left, Rubens got a call from Eroica who threatened
him that the shop would be burgled again if he would not tell where
Klaus went. Rubens told him that the Major might have gone back to
Germany, near a US Air Force Base, and hung up. Bonham assured Dorian
that it was easy to locate the base.

Paris. Brignac, shown the vulgar Japanese game, barked at the trio. He
took it that the Major had already obtained the information on Trojan
Horse from the English thief, his ally, and used Eroica to harass him
with the computer (note that Klaus still didn't know Eroica had
Brignac's computer at this point). He ordered the trio to chase Eroica
into Germany. He called his favorite agent "Q" and asked him to help
the incompetent trio in search of the thief.

Trier, Germany. Klaus and the alphabets were trying to single out Q
among the employee list of the French intelligence agency. Agent B's
casual joke inspired Klaus to identify Q, a cool, handsome agent with
the history of once having been a commander of mercs. He immediately
sent the alphabets to look for the French spy named Louis Cindlier.
There were only two more days left until the arrival of the US Secretary
General.

Trier. Eroica was annoyed by a good-looking man directing a camera at
him without asking for permission. The French introduced himself as a
professional photographer taking pictures of the ancient Roman ruins,
and praised Dorian for being photogenic. Eroica scowled and chased
him away. It was Q. Having confirmed it was Eroica, Q contacted the
three stooges (the trio of his colleagues are thus called later on) and
taught them Eroica's destination, but refused to cooperate any further.
He had a serious mission to watch the Arabs hiding in the German
forest.

D & E ascertained that Q had been witnessed around Trier. His car and
license number were known. Then the agent G called in to tell the Major
that Eroica was also in Trier, still followed by the three stooges. Not
knowing that Eroica really had the crucial information for him, Klaus
was bewildered at Eroica's persistence and called him a stalker. The
agent B suggested to play a little trick to let the three stooges
capture Eroica, by which they could eliminate both of the annoying
parties simultaneously. Klaus ordered the poor G to let the three
stooges know Eroica's whereabouts, which the agent G did, in tears.

At Porta Negra (the ancient Roman gate in Trier), James was seized by
one of the three stooges by the neck. Eroica threw Brignac's PC at
them, fetched James and fled (they still kept the floppy). Satisfied by
retrieval of the PC, the lazy French agents ignored Brignac's order to
capture Eroica and left. Suddenly Bonham realized that someone was
watching them from up on the gate. Eroica sneaked up the stairs and
found D & E reporting the whole episode to the Major on the R/T. At last
they knew Eroica really had had the secret file of the French agency's
conspiracy. Eroica protested to the surprised alphabets that he had
tried to deliver the information to the Major, and accused the Major of
his heartless attempt to have him caught by the three stooges. Dorian
snatched the R/T from E and yelled at Klaus that he made up his mind not
to give him the copy of the file on the floppy. Klaus, who was also
there one floor up and observing the struggle between Eroica and the
trio, came down the stairs and took the floppy from Eroica's hand
easily. He just didn't have any more time to lose. While Dorian was
whimpering, the news from the agent K came that Q's car had been found.

The car was parked at a hotel in the suburb of Bitburg. Q was seen
going in and out of the hotel twice a day, early in the morning and
evening. Klaus was going to bug his car with a tracking device so that
they could follow Q and locate the Arabs in the mountains. Claiming
that he was better at unlocking a car than the alphabets, Eroica offered
a collaboration. The Major sent him to bug the car. Unfortunately, Q
was ahead of Eroica; his keen eye didn't miss Dorian leaving the parking
lot stealthily.

They lost track of Q's BMW in a short while (Q attached the bug to the
other car at a gas station). Klaus accused Dorian, and called him a
thief who'd lost the edge. "It was indeed my fault to trust your
skill! I was stupid enough to believe that, at least, your skill was
first rate despite the fourth rate character!" The words ran off Dorian
like water off a duck's back. Dorian said he hated the big nose
(Brignac) but Q was even more unforgivable. Outraged, the Major shoved
Dorian into his car and drove back to Trier. He ordered him to go back
to London. Reluctantly, Eroica promised to do so, which the Major
didn't believe a bit.

In the snow covered mountains, Q observed the Arabs hiding in the
safehouse with no realization that they were watched by the hidden
cameras. Q was well aware that the Major would discover his monitoring
hideout sooner or later, and then Brignac's plan would come to a sorry
end. He had to stall the Major's movement. He wondered if he could use
the thief -- the Major's pawn -- to hinder Iron Klaus for just two more
days.

Back in the hotel room in Trier, Klaus and Dorian found James going wild
and the alphabets and Bonham at a loss. Learning what was in the Mac,
James assumed the alphabets must be hiding the copy of the game software
somewhere in the room. He wanted to make plenty of illegal copies of
the perverted game and sell them. Klaus ordered D & E to hold James and
call the police. James would be a hostage to stay in jail until
everything was over; in the meantime, Dorian should be out of
Germany; if he ever interfered with NATO in this case, James would be
locked up for the rest of his life. Klaus promised Dorian that he would
put up bail and release James two days later. Eroica and Bonham
disappeared right before the police came. The Major and alphabets went
on with the search of Q with a receipt the French agent left in his car
(and Dorian picked) as an only clue.

Dorian's pride did not allow him to leave center stage just like that;
mocked by the French and abused by the Germans, he needed to recover his
honor by taking a fling at the French spies. He called Brignac at his
home in Paris and blackmailed him (Bonham seemed concerned that Dorian
had become at home with blackmailing). He demanded Brignac to pay the
bail for James in a jail in Trier. If not, Eroica would tell his wife
about his mistress (Francoise). Brignac sneered. Eroica: "I made a
copy of the secret file which I planned to give to the Major Eberbach;
but I changed my mind, because the Major betrayed me and threw my friend
into jail; I'd rather give you back the floppy if you comply with my
demand." Eroica said he would call on Brignac again later and hung up.
Eroica was certain that Brignac would contact Q in Trier immediately,
which would give him a chance to locate Q and let Klaus know that. He
was right, and 15 minutes later Brignac told that his subordinate would
meet him in a pub at 8:00 p.m. Worried at Dorian's recklessness, Bonham
pleaded him not to get involved any further and leave the French in the
hands of the Major. Dorian laughed. But indeed, Dorian's play with
fire went too far this time.

Eroica waited at the designated pub until 8:40 p.m., but Q did not show
up. Disappointed and angry, he left the pub and started to walk down
the street. Someone patted his shoulder. It was Q smiling. The quiet
agent shoved a gun in Dorian's back, and led him into a dark alley. He
ordered Dorian to put his hands against the wall. Q checked Dorian's
body, took the floppy disk from him and clasped a metal ring with a
digital display on it around his neck. In his car, Q first destroyed
the file by typing in a wrong key word, then explained Dorian that the
ring around his neck was a time bomb with just the enough amount of
explosive to blow up his head; if forced to be taken off, it would go
off. Q showed Dorian a remote control to set the timer of the bomb,
demonstrating. Dorian in shock heard him saying, once the timer was
set, it would be Iron Klaus who had to disengage it.

Late at night, NATO intelligence and Klaus shared a hard time trying to
figure out the key word to access the file. Nor had they found out Q's
whereabouts. When the Major ordered the alphabets to go check every
resort facility and summer home in the Eiffel mountains, Bonham visited
his hotel room hesitantly. He apologetically explained that Eroica had
blackmailed Brignac to fish out Q, went to a pub in Bitburg to see the
French agent and hadn't come back yet. Bonham was worried, because
Dorian called him from the pub that the French broke the appointment.
Klaus tried to ease Bonham's anxiety; given Dorian's usual attitude, he
might have picked up a good-looking young man and be having a good
time. Klaus asked Bonham to stay there and help their investigation
while waiting for Dorian to come back. But at heart Klaus was beginning
to worry about Dorian, too. "What would happen if a sheep attempts to
lure out a wolf... He just doesn't know what he's doing."

Next morning, a school boy delivered an envelope addressed to Herr
Eberbach to the Major's hotel. It contained three Polaroid pictures --
one was Dorian with the neck band ("Help me!!" was hand written in the
space below), the second was a tower of a church, the third was Dorian
tied in front of a wall painting inside the church. Klaus immediately
acknowledged the time bomb around his neck. Bonham started sobbing.
The phone rang. To Dorian's whimpering voice, Klaus yelled asking for
the French agent. Q told the Major that he would set the timer of the
bomb at 9:00a.m. The bomb would go off in six hours at 3:00p.m. Q
demanded Klaus to come alone if he wanted to disengage the timer; the
Major was supposed to identify the location from the pictures he was
provided. Q hung up.

Dorian:

Did the Major tell you that he would come?

Q:

You're his collaborator. He should come.

Dorian:

You may not know, but he hates me. What happens if he doesn't come!?

Q:

Your head will be gone. That's all.

Klaus was inflamed with anger toward the Earl who kept on giving him
trouble no matter how hard he tried to chase him off. In tears, Bonham
begged the Major to help Dorian. Klaus told that it wasn't his real
intention to rescue the Earl, but at least it was a good chance to
contact Q. Klaus ordered Bonham to come with him and the others (A, B,
D and E) to go ahead with the search on the resort areas.

The Major and Bonham started to identify the location of the church.
They understood Q's objective was to have them waste time on the
search. The place where Dorian was captured should be a deserted church
on the south of Moselle river. The subject of wall painting behind
Eroica was a saint in a cauldron. Klaus explained to Bonham that it
must be a church of St. John, who had been tortured in boiling oil.
Klaus learned about the Christian saints at the Sunday school; he was
mischievous all the time, so the priests would scare him with those gore
stories. Klaus told Bonham that he had had a nightmare of being fried
in oil after listening to the story. Then he added, "The Earl will
suffer from nightmares of being blown up. I mean, in case he can get
back alive." Bonham cried. They departed to rescue Eroica at 9:00 a.m.

Around 11:30 a.m., they spotted the church in the snow-covered valley
among the forests. The Major got out of the car away from the church
and started walking, leaving Bonham behind. Dorian was tied to a tree
near the church. The Major mercilessly peeled off the duct tape
covering his mouth. The Earl said Q had left on foot with the remote
control box which was necessary to disengage the timer. Three more
hours were left. Eroica told him the color and the license number of
Q's car. The Major called A on the R/T and relayed the information
which "might become Lord Gloria's last good deed." Klaus and Dorian
started following the footsteps of Q on the snow. Eroica apologized to
the Major for the trouble he gave him, and swore that, once he'd be let
out of this, he would reveal the name of Brignac's lover to his wife for
vengeance. Klaus became alert, as there was no information on Brignac's
mistress in his data. The Major again R/T'ed A and told him to let the
information staff in Bonn try "Francoise" for the key word to get the
file.

Klaus:

If it is a bingo, I'll offer the letter of gratitude and a wreath to
your grave.

Dorian:

[tear came out of his eye; crouching on the ground, turning his
back to the Major] ...That's not funny, Major. You know that hurt,
don't you? Don't say such a cruel thing to one who's standing on the
brink of death.

Klaus:

[unaffected, keeps on walking] Was that so?

Eroica kept on grumbling, but the Major completely ignored him. Dorian
started following him and with one leg caught in deep snow, fell down on
the ground. Tears of misery ran down his cheeks. "Don't get crabby
from a little hunger. Weeping doesn't stop the time!" The Major threw
him a Nestle's black chocolate bar (bitter) and pulled him up from the
ground.

They kept on walking after Q's footsteps among the snow-covered forest
for an hour and a half, then found themselves back to the church.
Taking the second picture as a hint, the Major climbed up to the roof of
the church and found the remote control on foot of the tower. Then Klaus
saw the figure of Q standing on the hill beyond shooting range,
observing the two. Klaus started chasing Q; Eroica yelled at him to
disengage the timer first. 14 more minutes were left. Klaus pressed
the cancel button, but it didn't work. The batteries were removed. The
Major R/T'ed Bonham to find two 2A batteries in the car and bring them
as fast as possible. Bonham dashed toward the church on the four-wheel
drive; a tire got caught in snow. Klaus cursed Bonham and ordered him
to use the skis. 7 minutes and 35 sec. left. Klaus grabbed Dorian's
arm and started running to the direction from which Bonham was coming.
When he saw Bonham struggling with the skis, only 2 minutes were left.
Bonham threw the batteries to the Major. He caught them, sat on the
snow and concentrated on putting the batteries in the remote control box
when there were only 32 sec. of the margin. The Major pressed the
cancel button, and the digital display turned back to [00:00:00].
Dorian whispered "Major, I love you," and passed out. Klaus
said, "Idiot, hold your tongue and keel over."

Bonham rushed to Dorian and held his senseless body tightly. Bonham
asked Klaus if he could remove the bomb around his neck, which was an
operation only the bomb squad could deal with. The Major suggested
Bonham to leave the band so that he could control Dorian for a while.

Agent A reported to the Major that the file had opened with "Francoise"
at Bonn. Klaus asked A to send for the bomb squad to Trier. While
Bonham took Dorian's limp body to the car, Klaus checked inside the
church again to find the two batteries removed from the remote control.
He swore he would arrest Q who had turned him around his finger.

The decoded file substantiated the Major's hypothesis on Brignac's
conspiracy to shake the foundation of NATO so that France would take
away the EU's initiative from Germany and England. The Chief told him,
now that the material evidence was obtained, it was about time for the
Air Force to fly scout planes in search of the "Trojan Horse" and send
the GSG9 (the 9th anti-terrorist squad of the frontier army). It was
important to capture the Arabs and Q as the live witnesses against those
who would try to cover up for Brignac. The US Secretary General would
come to the base in Germany at 10:00 a.m. the following day. But the
search of the terrorist group suddenly became an easy task due to the
dispatch of reconnaissance planes equipped with infrared sensors to
perceive the radiant heat on the ground. Klaus ordered A & B to confirm
the apprehension of all the Arabs and confiscate the evidence of
Brignac's conspiracy.

Q, spending the night in his car deep in the forest, heard the engine of
the plane and realized a Tornado (the reconnaissance plane of the Air
Force) was flying toward the summer resort area. He saw at once that
Brignac's operation had been frustrated and the Trojan Horse would be
soon arrested. He was determined to run away before Iron Klaus came to
catch him.

3:00 a.m. Dorian woke up from a nightmare (just as the Major had
predicted) in which everyone in unison happily counted down to the explosion of
the bomb around his neck as if it were a new year's eve. Bonham told
him that Klaus was with the local police to capture Q at large and the
alphabets were waiting for the arrival of the special anti-terrorist
squad. The scout plane spotted the safehouse of the Arabs. Dorian
jumped out of the bed and got ready to go see the grand finale. In
compliance with the Major's strict order to keep him in the hotel room,
Bonham tried to stop him, but Dorian insisted he would not be released
from the nightmare of the bomb until he saw Q, the man who had given him
such fear and shame, succumb to the Major. Dorian sat in the couch,
covered his face with his hands and pretended to weep. Bonham gave in
and made him promise that he'd only observe. Eroica hugged him.

(The scene of the special squad arresting all five Arabs in five
minutes.)

Keeping vigil, Klaus was contemplating the outcome of the whole event.
If the Trojan Horse knew they had been manipulated by Brignac, their
colleagues would retaliate. The top brass would have to come up with
some measures to handle the delicate situation. At dawn, he took off in
the police's helicopter to find Q's blue BMW station wagon. The pilot
pointed out that they were followed by another helicopter, but the Major
did miss spotting the helicopter maneuvered by Bonham.

Q was found wandering in the mountains by Klaus. The Major ordered the
pilot to hover until he captured the Frenchman. Jumping down upon him from
the helicopter, the Major grabbed Q's wrist, let him drop his gun and
kicked it away. Q took out a knife for counterattack and ran away. Q
was swift and his movement was that of the person who had grown up
playing in snow mountains since childhood. Their distance became
greater. Dorian, secretly landed nearby and watching everything, picked
up Q's gun and considered to practice shooting. Bonham protested he
shouldn't touch the dangerous thing. Dorian assured him that he'd left
it on the ground, but hid it under his waistband on the back. He asked
Bonham to take him to a vantage point where he could observe the two's
fight well. Dorian was on the top of a precipice when Klaus flung off Q
and finally pointed a gun at him. In excitement, Dorian took off both
hands which had supported his body from the edge of the cliff. Losing
his balance, he gave a short scream, which caught the Major's attention
for a moment. Q didn't miss the chance, hit Klaus's face and dashed
himself against the Major toward Dorian sliding straight down the steep
hill. Dorian landed on Klaus with mass of snow. Q snatched the Major's
gun sticking out of the huge snowball.

Klaus and Dorian started arguing in front of Q pointing the gun at them.

Klaus:

You've come to get in my way again, you failed-to-die bastard!

Dorian:

I'm sorry.

Klaus:

Sorry!? Sorry works only if you were a three-year-old! God, I
shouldn't have disengaged the time-bomb! You are a confirmed criminal
to bite the hand that feeds you!

Dorian:

You're wrong! I just came to see you beat him. I'm not an ingrate.
Believe me.

Klaus:

The one who believes you won't be saved!

Dorian:

Then, I'll prove my innocence.

Klaus:

[looking away, sarcastically] Oh, is that so?

Dorian:

Monsieur Q, let me talk to you.

Klaus:

[still sitting on the ground, sulkily] You think he's another
moron to listen to a queer's gibberish!?

Dorian:

[opening the front of his jacket] The Major saved my life. Shoot
me instead of him.

Klaus:

Oh, stop that! He's sneering.

Dorian:

[still turning his back to Klaus] Major, I atone for the past
troubles that I gave you. Look at me.

[Dorian stood between the two agents with his back to Klaus. He
lifted his jacket so that the Major could see the gun hidden under his
waistband.]

Klaus:

Gut, the balance is cleared.

Next moment, Klaus grabbed the gun and fired at Q from between Dorian's
legs. The bullet blew off the gun in Q's hand. Klaus quickly got up
under Dorian, sending him falling over on his back. Struck dumb with
surprise, Dorian looked up at the sky with his eyes wide open.

Dorian: That...was fantastic!

Klaus frisked the French agent and asked him if he was from the mountains.
Q said he had grown up in the Pyrenees.

Klaus:

[looking at Dorian still sitting on the ground, struck dumb]
Are you paralyzed!? Weakling!

Dorian:

You shot between my legs, all of a sudden...[immediately wearing that typical drawlingness and sidelong
glance]
...That was arousing.[fingering the curl] This will help me forget the nightmare of the
time-bomb. From tonight on, I'll dream sexy dreams of you between my
legs.

Klaus:

Even bomb dreams are healthier! Get lost, you pervert!

Dorian:

Oh, can you ignore my contributions!?

Klaus:

I'll pay the bail for the garbage. [James]

Dorian:

That's all?

Klaus:

I'll make the Chief thank you.

Dorian:

Nothing from you?

Klaus yelled at the R/T to come down to pick up Q and a thief he had
apprehended. Dorian fled with, "I'll count on your conscience! A
wreath will do! Good luck!"

Watching him running away toward Bonham, Klaus asked Q what he thought
of the Earl.

Q: Many Brits are strange.

Klaus: That's straightforward.

Almost comfortingly, Klaus told Q that the French Intelligence agency
wouldn't let him go even if his superior was fired. Klaus said that Q
wouldn't be assigned to NATO-related missions. Q would not come to
Germany ever again.

Köln-Bonn Airport, morning. Brignac was met by the Chief who jovially
asked him if he had the return flight reservation, and suggested he take
the flight 30 minutes later. The Chief handed the cellular to
bewildered Brignac; it was a call from the French Foreign Minister; he
ordered him to return to France immediately; Brignac's conspiracy, with
which the French government had no concern, was revealed and Brignac was
dismissed from the position of the vice directeur of foreign information
office. He would be interrogated at the hearing committee. To Brignac
in utter shock, the Chief boasted that NATO Intelligence had many
capable staff, other than Iron Klaus.

The alphabets were looking up at the US Secretary General's helicopter
safely flying away, with a sigh of relief. But Klaus was pale and
obviously distressed. He said he had nausea, headache and dizziness. A
asked whether he caught cold in the snow mountains, or had eaten something
bad; he answered he would have to do so in minutes according to the
Chief's order. The Chief and Klaus were going to dine with the Earl to
acknowledge his contributions to NATO. The last scene of the episode is
the amusing sight of Dorian in a dark suit and carrying a coat and the
Chief walking side by side down the street toward the restaurant,
cheerfully talking to each other.